Books may well be the only true magic. — Alice Hoffman

Monthly Archives: May 2017

I’ve been meaning to read this book for years but just never got around to it. I grew up with Dirty Dancing, Red Dawn, The Outsiders, and Roadhouse so I was definitely a Patrick Swayze fan. I was upset by his cancer diagnosis and eventual death, but it wasn’t until a few years ago when a friend of mine was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that I realized just what that diagnosis had meant for him.

What I liked most about this book is that is focuses on his early life and his career up to his diagnosis. I didn’t realize that Swayze had danced ballet professionally, though I knew he was a dancer. I enjoyed reading about his experiences while working and why he chose to make the films he did. He definitely wasn’t as prolific as some actors and it’s because he make movies he really believed in, even if they weren’t mega blockbusters. He could have made many more movies if he had allowed himself to be typecast but he really didn’t want that. He liked to make different kinds of films to stretch his abilities and to learn new things.

I also enjoyed reading about his relationship with his wife. They had their problems but they worked things out together through it all. In a time when a lot of Hollywood marriages don’t last more than a few years, it’s refreshing to read about a couple who truly loved, respected, and supported each other.

I have always enjoyed memoirs and autobiographies. Call it my nosy nature but I like the behind the scenes info people share about their lives that I wouldn’t otherwise get to know. I would have liked a bit more background on his family and I certainly felt that the loss of their baby could have gotten more than a couple of paragraphs but I imagine that even all those years later, it must have been incredibly difficult to write about.

Overall, I’m glad I read the book but it makes me sad too, to think of the loss of such a talented man, gone much too soon.